


Strays and Wild Things

by Mithen



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-09
Updated: 2011-09-09
Packaged: 2017-10-25 00:59:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/269937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/pseuds/Mithen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Superman brings an unexpected guest back to the Fortress.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strays and Wild Things

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [流浪和野生的](https://archiveofourown.org/works/575366) by [Lynx219](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lynx219/pseuds/Lynx219)



_  
The wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him. --Rudyard Kipling   
_

< I do not understand your request >, the Fortress computer informed Batman politely.

Batman growled to himself and repeated the Kryptonian command with the correct inflection: he could switch the Fortress to English, of course, but he liked the challenge. The Fortress accepted it the second time and went to work while Batman drummed his fingers on the crystal console. His own computer was good enough for most things, but there was relatively little call for gamma-ray astronomy in Gotham, so when he needed it he borrowed the Fortress. He wondered where Superman was at the moment. The Fortress always seemed especially empty without him, the vast open spaces somehow lonely.

 _Ridiculous_ , he scoffed at himself. Still, the deep silence was somehow...unnerving.

A small chime almost made him jump: the proximity sensors glowed a placid blue to indicate Superman was on his way back.

Batman was in the great hall reading the translucent printouts when Superman swooped into the Fortress.

"Oh, you're back," said Batman nonchalantly. "I was--" He stopped, eyes narrowing as he realized Superman was carrying his cape in his hands as if it were wrapped around something. "What's that?"

The folds of the cape _lurched_ and Batman took a judicious step back, visions of alien face-huggers or assassin drones in his mind.

"It's--" Clark broke off and cleared his throat. "Well, it's nothing dangerous," he finished, looking chagrined. He put the cape down on the glassy floor as if he were putting down expensive china. The scarlet cloth bunched, shifted, and gave way as a small black shape that seemed to be all legs and ears tumbled out of it.

"Clark," said Batman, "You didn't bring a kitten up to the Fortress."

"My apartment doesn't allow pets," Clark muttered as the kitten swiveled on its hind legs and attacked the cape with gusto.

"You can't just adopt random stray kittens," Batman pointed out as the animal abruptly lost interest in the scarlet cape and began stalking the swaying hem of his own cape. He twitched it aside and the kitten sprang at it, claws extended. It missed and skidded across the floor a few feet before looking back at Batman and hissing briefly.

"It's not a random kitten," said Superman, looking uncomfortable. "I just couldn't..." He shrugged.

"It seems a perfectly ordinary kitten to me." It was pouncing toward him, getting up a good head of steam; he stepped out of the way and it scrabbled past him, ending up on its back, waving its paws at him furiously. "I fail to see--oh." From this angle, a little patch of white fur on its chest was revealed, a tiny winged shape like an emblem.

Superman reached down and rubbed a finger along the kitten's belly. It bit at it for a second, then went blissfully limp, gazing up at him with adoring, half-closed eyes. "I...didn't want to leave it to fend for itself," Clark said as a minute purr throbbed through the Fortress.

"In my experience, cats are pretty good at fending for themselves," Bruce said, hoping his tone was remaining tart. "I'm sure this one will do fine on its own." The kitten blinked at Clark lazily and made little paddling motions in the air, all its fierceness gone. _You're not helping my case here, cat._

Clark straightened and shrugged. "I know, I just..." The kitten stared up and made a querulous _chirping_ noise, then glared at Bruce as if it blamed him.

There was scrambling _whoosh_ , and something white and red blurred by Bruce, then stopped in midair like a statue, staring down.

"Oh, Krypto," said Superman. "I found a--"

The kitten cut him off with a vicious hiss, arching its back like a little bow, all its fur on end. It raised one paw and bared five infinitesimal claws at the invulnerable Super-Dog, defying him with every ounce of its tiny body.

Bruce liked it more immediately.

Krypto cast Clark a dubious look, then leaned down to sniff the small black interloper. It reared back and batted wildly at his nose with both paws before falling onto its back.

Krypto looked at Clark. "Be good, boy," said Clark with a smile. Krypto made a small, exasperated _whuffing_ noise and bent back to the kitten--only to find it gone.

The dog turned its head to search for it, then froze as he became aware the kitten was swinging from his ear like an earring, tiny fangs clamped on it. Krypto looked imploringly at Superman one more time, then lowered himself to the floor with an almost-inaudible whine so that the kitten was on solid ground again.

The kitten rolled onto its back and kicked at Krypto's ear as if attempting to disembowel an enemy, making angry muttering noises in its throat.

"It's a fighter," Clark said approvingly as it gnawed furiously on Krypto's long-suffering ear.

"Clark, you can't keep a kitten at the Fortress," Batman said. "You're not here often enough, and what if you get called away for an emergency for a long time? It's not like you can just hire a cat-sitter."

Clark looked rather mutinous, then sighed. "You're right, of course." The kitten yawned hugely with no warning, letting go of Krypto's ear and stretching its paws in all directions. Clark reached down and picked it up, cradling it in his hands. The kitten squirmed around and ended up belly-up again, gazing up at Clark. "It'll be better off in Smallville on the farm anyway. I just..." Clark rubbed behind its ears and it started to purr breathily, its eyes slowly sliding shut. He touched the tiny white mark on its chest. "I couldn't leave it."

Batman cleared his throat. "As it turns out, Alfred has been complaining of mice in the pantry lately. I've been thinking a cat might scare them off." Clark's eyes flashed up to his. "He could use some company, and a cat requires less care than a dog. So..."

Clark waited.

"...I could probably take it off your hands," Bruce finished after a moment. Krypto gave him a sympathetic look: _better you than me_.

"Could I come by and see it sometimes? Not that I don't trust you completely," Clark added hastily, "I don't mean I'd be checking up on you or anything. Just to visit." The kitten curled into a ball in his hands, wrapping its paws around a Kryptonian finger and hugging it close, and Clark beamed down on it.

Bruce thought briefly about fierce and independent things, prickly and lone, and how some people seemed able to get past their guard without even trying.

"You'd better not think you can just dump some stray on me and then never come by, Kent," he said.

Clark smiled at him as though he'd said _I want to see you as often as possible,_ the little alley cat thrumming like a heart cradled in his gentle hands.


End file.
